106 comments on New HRT F112 seen for the first time in Spain

Ready to replace Karthikeyan. HRT have been stupid to replace Tonio, but wise at the same time to keep him. If the car happens to be a championship contender, they’ll immediately put him in the car to score wins and wins, something which neither Pedro or Narain could do.
:P

I like it, the colour anyway. I hope they are at least within 107% regularly this season, my one worry is they may have difficulty keeping up again. I have a real soft spot for this team for some reason.

@me your not the only one buddy. I got a warm feeling when they came 11th last year, again, in front of (then) Virgin. And that they could have done better then (the then) Lotus team if it wasn’t for one lucky result.

I dislike that people write them off, yes, they’re completely off the pace, but they are an absolute, brand, spanking new team. They’ve had ownership issues, they’ve had major budget issues, but they are still there and they still haven’t come plum last – which is a major feat given that they bring no upgrades at all.

Nice Livery on an otherwise empty car. Didnt they have more sponsors last yet? or was it just more was happening on 2011s livery

Like the Marussia, its a tad dissapointing in that it looks more GP2 then F1. I know they have less money and having a group of people running them change, but this is their 3rd car now and Id like to think they [both] could have designed something better. Still, Ill try hold my judgement till Melbourne, but as I said on the Marussia one, I fear both will fall foul to the 107% rule.

It does look like it flows better, the rear is tidyier and the sidepods are better managed. But as I said, it doesnt inspire confidence in getting anything except trying not to finish last to the Marussia’s. I dont know, maybe both will fluke a good finish in a race and I imagine a Wet race will be either teams preference for such.

It’s actually a really nice looking car in my view, and it looks like a step forwards from last year’s car. Hope they have a good year, like @djdaveyp85 I have a soft spot for this team. They remind me of the racers’ spirit more than any other team on the grid. I like that.

Very nice livery they got. I only wish they had some more sponsors, it looks so blank now.
And let’s hope it’s fast (enough) out of the box, so they can qualify in Melbourne and maybe beat Marussia on speed this year.

Brawn success rate sky rocketed only because, Mosley wanted to put on a David vs Goliath show, to give confidence to people applying for 2010 entries that 40M spending underdogs can hope for miracles in F1.
And so illegal double diffusers were deemed legal.

Mosley simply forgot to mention the small detail about the massive resources Honda Bosses from Japan had sunk in the project and had to pay before they parted ( to keep Regulators, labor departments in UK happy).

Another trivial matter overlooked was the idea was originally of a Super Aguri engineer and was planned to go on Aguri Car before Nick Fry mysteriously pulled plug on the Super Aguri project, in spite of Super Aguri boss lining up sponsor after sponsor to be vetted by Nick on behalf of Honda Bosses.

@bascb the 2011 livery was arguably the best part of the entire team, let alone the car. Money well spent indeed and to think they still managed the 11th place without putting said money into its (if it exists) R&D dept

I like this car both livery and outward appearances. The design seems similar (in some sense) to most of the other teams. I think the car is definitely going to be a step up from last year. Can Melbourne get here any faster :) !!!

Why would they want such a small bump in the nose? Surely the little advantage they got out of the very slightly higher nose is offset by the bump which disattach the airflow over the nose. Either they should have gone with a complete rise in chassis and flat nose like most team, or bumpless nose, something they need to do next year anyway.

airflow under the nose is much more important than the air flowing above it in terms of creating downforce. otherwise why would the smartest engineers in motorsport go with such a concept? what makes you think you understand it better than they do?

If looks equals speed, then we’re seeing a championship runner-up. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so this in my opinion very pretty car will probably have much tv coverage… while being lapped multiple times. Still, I love it.

In short, I’m not keen. But well done to them for getting the car on track. To be fair to them, they’re showing a lot of grit and determination and I applaud them for that. Hopefully all the changes they’ve made behind the scene’s will stand them in good stead for the future. Good luck to them.

i love the elegant simplicity of the livery. but what’s with the orange and green splashes on the inside of the rear wing endplates? i can tell it’s from the sponsor ‘KH-7′ as seen on the garage wall, but common…it ruins everything :( i know they lack sponsors, but even so i would scrap that off the car!